Marcion of Sinope was a Pre-Nicene “Church Father” who asked a simple question: How could a good, compassionate God like Jesus Christ have a psychotic, genocidal “Father” like Yahweh? Marcion’s answer: Jesus didn’t.
Marcion of Sinope, Heretic. 85-145 AD.
If you are completely nauseated by Reverend Hagie and Christian Zionism generally, I present Marcion of Sinope, Heretic. His conviction: Jesus Christ wasn’t Jewish. His arguments are persuasive.
Let’s do a little dive into Marcion’s Gospel, shall we?
Marcion’s teachings were condemned by the Catholic Church. Marcion was excommunicated and branded a heretic. His texts were burned by the Vatican. I recount herein what his contemporary Church Historians wrote in refutation of his “Heresy” and by that method piece together what the furor was all about. Spoiler alert: Marcion had big cojones. This was Revolutionary stuff for 144 AD.
The first hundred years following the crucifixion of Christ was a time when “Christians” worshipped as they pleased. They had no New Testament (that would come in 325 AD as result of the Council of Nicaea). They had bits, pieces and fragments of “Letters” allegedly written by a Missionary named “Paul” and whatever other oral traditions and anonymously transcribed testimonies attributed to Christ they lay their hands on.
They had no Bible. They had no blueprint of what Christianity was. In areas like Asia Minor – where there were concentrations of Semitic tribes, Jews, Phoenicians and proto-Turkic groups – people had a fair grasp of the Old Testament and Laws of Moses. They knew Christ was a Jew – hence they struggled to reconcile his teaching with how he was treated by other Jews.
At the center of it all was Yahweh, the purported “Father” of Jesus Christ. The angry, vengeful God of the Old Testament. How did he fit in?
In the City of Sinope on the Black Sea in modern-day Turkey, a wealthy ship-owner named Marcion contemplated this Deity with much consternation. Let’s review a bit about Yahweh, shall we – and explore why Marcion had such a hairball in his craw about him.
Why Did Marcion Reject the Jewish Deity?
Yahweh is the “God” that allegedly made a Covenant with Moses. Yahweh virtually adopts the Jewish people forevermore – in return for their complete subjugation. He appears on a mountain (burning in a bush) and gives Moses stone tablets with “The Law” carved on them and decrees:
“Behold, I make a covenant before all thy people….and all the people shall see the work of the Lord……for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee…….Take heed……lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest…..ye shall destroy their altars, break their images and cut down their groves;
Thou shall not worship no other God – for I am a jealous God”. Exodus 34:12-28
And Joshua came hither and said to his people – hear the words of your God. He will drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites…. the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites and the Jebusites……
They destroyed all that was in the city (Jericho) – both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword. And they burnt the city with fire….and the silver and gold and vessels of brass and iron they put into their treasury of the house of the Lord.”
Joshua goes on a Biblical tear of destruction under the guiding hand of Yahweh. He takes five thousand Jews and attacks Beth-el and Ai; Gibeon, Canaan, the lands of the Amorites, the Hittites, Perizzites – all the peoples and places Yahweh directs him to wage war against. Why? To take their wealth and lands forevermore. Yahweh ordered it.
In Deuteronomy 32:39 Yahweh proclaims: “I am he….and there is no God (but) me……I lift my hand to Heaven and I live forever……I kill, I make alive, I wound and I heal……..I whet my glittering sword and take hold on judgment……I render vengeance to mine enemies…..I will make my arrows drunk with blood and my sword devour flesh”.
In Leviticus Yahweh announces that if the Jews “hearken not” to keep his statutes, commandments and do them utterly: “I will appoint over you terror, consumption and burning ague that shall consume your eyes and cause sorrow of heart……ye shall sow your seed in vain and your enemies will eat it. I will punish you yet seven times for your sins…..”
These are but a few of Yahweh’s gems. Yahweh is a psychotic god of genocide. Modern commentator Laurent Guyenot in his book, From Yahweh to Zion, Jealous God, Chosen People (2018) sums it up as follows:
“Yahweh is a jealous God that has bound Jews in a xenophobic covenant – Judaism is a cognitive virus that has driven this people insane for a hundred generations. They need to know that they are suffering from a biblical psychopathy”.
Enter Marcion and His Canon
In 100AD Marcion is wealthy. He owns a fleet of vessels in the city of Sinope on the extremely profitable Black Sea and Mediterranean trade routes (modern day Pontus in Turkey). He is well-educated and knows his gospels backwards and forwards. His father, Philologus of Sinope, is a learned Christian Elder in the Community and personally sees to his sons’ intellectual development.
Marcion contemplates the documentary and oral traditions about Jesus Christ and reaches certain conclusions. This is, I emphasize, the so-called “pre-Nicene” period in the First Century, AD. For context, bear in mind that the Christian New Testament won’t be compiled until the Council of Nicaea in 325AD.
Turning our attention to Jesus and his Disciples, let’s clarify a few facts. The four main New Testament Gospels are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Matthew and John were “chosen” by Jesus to be Apostles in Galilee and spent about three years (give or take) wandering about with Jesus before his Crucifixion and Resurrection. Luke never met Jesus. Luke was one of St. Paul’s travelling companions about seventy-five years after Jesus’ crucifixion.
Matthew and John knew Jesus. This is significant.
Who wrote the Gospels of “eyewitnesses” Matthew and John – guys that met, travelled with and observed Jesus – and when? All we know is that the Gospels of Matthew and John were written in Greek by an unknown scribe (called an “Amanuensis”) about seventy years after Jesus’ crucifixion and just before they both died at an advanced age.
Note: The only eyewitness Apostles of Jesus (who possibly experienced the Crucifixion in real time) told their stories to an unknown scribe in the twilight of their lives, probably limited by their ability to recollect and articulate accurately due to failing health.
Luke also writes his Gospel – based on recollections of his time spent with Saint Paul who also never met Jesus or observed the Crucifixion – about seventy-five years after the event. He was also in the twilight if his years, near death. Saint Paul (Saul of Tarsus) knows what he knows about Jesus from his years of hunting down Christians to punish them. Ultimately, “visions” of Jesus Christ (or angels) “cleared his eyes” and made possible his miraculous conversion. As a Jew he was literally “born again” while riding an ass to Damascus to meet a friend. Paul insists that he “saw” the resurrected Jesus……. who then asked him: “Why do you persecute me and my followers?”
The Gospels of the other Apostles assembled in the New Testament in 325AD (the Council of Nicaea) are all written at unknown times by persons unidentified.
There is no record or legend of Matthew, Mark or Luke personally ever writing anything down contemporaneously with events they witnessed. We don’t even know if they were literate or could write in any language. Jesus surrounded himself with fishermen – hardly the best educated band of companions. These guys were probably tough from their years of manual labor – good mates to have in a bar fight. But any record we have allegedly attributed to them was written down by someone else (in Greek) many years after the salient events happened.
Marcion studied such Gospels as were available to him in 100AD and came to certain conclusions.
Marcion’s Conclusions
Marcion published and proclaimed his conclusions throughout Asia Minor and the Mediterranean Basin. For this, he was excommunicated by the Council of Presbyters (there was no “Vatican” or College of Bishops yet).
Bottom line? Jesus was not Yahweh’s son.
Marcion said Jesus Christ and Christ’s teachings were diametrically opposed to Judaism. The Jewish God Yahweh was not the transcendental God of the Universe. Yahweh was a belligerent, destructive, vengeance-oriented and ritual obsessed God of the Hebrew Bible – an entity that had nothing whatsoever in common with Jesus.
Marcion opined that there was a higher, transcendent God that was responsible for the existence of Jesus Christ – in spiritual and physical form. Marcion didn’t name this transcendent God or otherwise identify him.
This paradigm is called “ditheistic”: a two-God solution. Two Gods – a high “transcendent” one (Jesus’ Father) and a lower frequency “prison warden” God that seeks to micro-manage mankind and compels compliance with strict, arcane and unnecessary laws. Yahweh is a tyrant who that demands unwavering fealty and obeisance from a certain Tribe that he (for whatever reason) is preoccupied with.
Marcion opines that the Old Testament God Yahweh is possibly an evil “Demiurge”, a jealous Tribal deity from who knows where who manipulates Jews with a structured belief system heavily weighted with meaningless rituals, overbearing laws, retribution, suffering and death. Marcion contrasts this with Jesus Christ – the son of some unnamed Transcendental God of the Universe – a God of love and compassion. A God who embraces the whole human race (as opposed to one Tribe) with benevolence, mercy, forgiveness and tolerance.
To Marcion, Yahweh’s dictate that Hebrews eradicate entire cities – killing men, women and children – is evidence of his maleficent nature, violently cleansing Middle East real estate so the Jews could move right in. Jews would thereby take land title to an enormous footprint of land that Moses “promised” them in their Covenant. This militaristic extermination of non-Jewish people becomes the Jewish homeland. Yahweh’s orchestration of large-scale genocide in the Levant is proof that the Old Testament God was a lesser “destroyer God”, a “Demiurge” unworthy of human worship or veneration.
Divorcing Jesus Christ from the Jews and their savage and aggressive God was a winning strategy and people flocked to Marcion. Everywhere he docked his ships, he was greeted like a rock star. Transforming Jesus into a Gentile Deity and distancing Christianity from Judaism and the Old Testament God of Wrath and Ruin hit a positive nerve with people.
Yahweh wasn’t a God people identified with let alone liked. Suffocating Jewish rules, dismal laws, dietary restrictions, contentious and intemperate disputes about Yahweh, the tyranny of Levite Priests – this straitjacket of Mosaic cultural norms was (in many villages) eagerly cast overboard in favor of Jesus Christ.
Marcion’s gospel was so popular throughout the Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean that he established actual brick and mortar churches. Marcionite Christians ultimately outnumbered any other Christian sect in the Mediterranean basin and Asia Minor.
Of course, with the advent of Emperor Constantine and his intense pressure on church elders to create a single “unifying canon” at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD things changed throughout the Mediterranean basin. When the Emperor of Rome decreed that the New Testament Christ was to be worshipped as prescribed in the new Holy Testament – a Testament that rejected Marcion’s condemnation of Yahweh and his Old Testament cruelties – everybody fell in line. The Christian faith was once more Judaized. After 325AD, Jesus was once more Yahweh’s son.
Was Marcion’s Jesus a Man?
Since Marcion maintained that Christ was the Son of an unknown “Transcendent” entity of some kind, did he teach that the Lord and Savior was flesh or spirit?
Marcion’s eschatological universe was straightforward:
- Yahweh wasn’t “God the Father”.
- Jesus’” Father” was a higher-frequency Deity that was benevolent and peaceful.
- Jesus was the antithesis of Yahweh. If “A good tree can only produce good fruit” (the Biblical Test, Luke 6:43-44), the perfection and goodness of Jesus could not have been fathered by a demonic, destructive, vengeful and genocidal Yahweh as a matter of pure logic and moral justice.
- Jesus was sent to save mankind from Jewish Law and Rabbinical spiritual tyranny by a transcendent God the Father.
- The psychotic demonstrations of Yahweh contrasted with the compassionate ministrations of Jesus and provided conclusive evidence for the world to decide that the Jewish “God” was unworthy of worship.
- Freeing the faithful from the chains of the Old Testament prophets was necessary for mankind to evolve and reach its potential.
- Jesus had a “image” of a physical body with no actual physicality. He was human – but ethereal – spiritual, yet palpable. He could manifest any condition he chose; he was God’s son. All things were possible. The Crucifixion and Resurrection happened in the minds of men; God willed it to be so. Jesus was both God and Man. The Alpha and Omega. The paragon of God the Fathers’ grace.
Richard Dawkins, a famous Scholar and Commentator on Religious matters, famously wrote in 2006:
“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it, petty, unjust, an unforgiving control-freak, a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser, a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully”.
When contemporary Christians seek to justify a violent act, a retaliation, the overthrow of a government or particularly strident punishment they quote the Old Testament. Nothing that Jesus preaches in the New Testament can help them make their points. As Marcion maintained: a good God – like Jesus – cannot commit atrocities.
(See Dr. G. Andrade, Marcion of Sinope’s Relevance in the Cotemporary World vis-a-vis Religious Violence, Acta Theologica Vol 38 N 2, Bloemfontein, 2018)
Marcion taught that if barbarism and violence is rejected by man, the worship of a God who orders such barbarism and violence should also be rejected. It is not possible for a true follower of Jesus Christ to worship a God as violent as Yahweh. Yahweh’s commands to Jews to unleash conquests, genocide entire populations (including children) and punish with the sword those to fail to observe rituals conducted by unyielding Levite Priests renders Yahweh’s “Deity” gravitas suspect.
Marcion argued for Ethical Monotheism – mindful that his doctrine entailed acknowledging that there was a lesser force named Yahweh who was not to be venerated or dignified with the moniker “God”. He wasn’t a God – only a destroyer. The only God was a Transcendent “God the Father” of Jesus Christ, part of the Blessed Trinity that included the Holy Spirit and his blessed Son. Three elemental perfections that were one in the Godhead.
Conclusion
If we follow Marcion’s logic, there is no such thing as a Judeo-Christian Faith or belief system. Marcion rejects everything that is Jewish in the New Testament and washes Jesus clean of its influences. We are left with a God of pure benevolence, love and understanding – who’s not a Jew.
Marcion wrote his own Bible in 144AD. Some scholars say Marcion’s Bible was the basis for an expanded Gospel we know today as the Gospel of Luke. Marcion included nothing of the (what he considered) “Judaized” Gospels of Matthew, Mark and John. The Luke we read today – as are all the Gospels assembled adopted by the Council of Nicaea in 325 – in Marcion’s words, were Judaized to make them more palatable to the multitudes of Jews that settled throughout Asia Minor.
Was Jesus Crucified? If, as Marcion proposes, Jesus was just a “phantom” (i.e. an “incarnation” of man, not a physical body as much as a manifestation of reality) how was the event carried out? Was Jesus nailed to a cross? Was Jesus some DARPA-project Hologram generated by the Divine Science of a benevolent “God the Father” to shock humanity out of blind subservience to an evil, corrosive influence named Yahweh? Was Jesus Resurrected?
Was Jesus’ ultimate mission to save mankind from a psychotic and destructive entity called Yahweh that somehow insinuated itself into the world and deceived a particularly susceptible Tribe of superstitious, inbred and belligerent residents of the Levant?
I guess we can respond – like our Priests – “It’s complex….”
Marcion tells us to trust the “Good Fruit” of the “Good Tree” for answers. Marcion’s solution was to reject the doctrines and teachings of a false god named Yahweh who, he believed, swindled mankind for generations and proved himself bereft of merit.
Marcion of Sinope died in 144 AD after he wrote and distributed his Bible – ironically acknowledged by the Catholic Church today as the first written Canon of Jesus Christ. He died rich and adored by his followers.
May God rest his soul.
Copyright, 2024 Jon Croft
email: vlchek1@gmail.com
